Story Ideas and Inspiration

After taking a creative writing class offered by the Continuing Education Department at my local community college in 2006, I decided to try my hand at writing a novel.

 

Like most writers, I’m an avid reader, especially of cozy murder mysteries, but many times found myself longing for a different direction in the plot. “Why not write my own story?” I thought. Not only would it provide many hours of creative fun, it was free!

 

And that’s exactly how I wound up with three whole and two partially finished novels in my bottom desk drawer, thinking they were purely for my own entertainment.

 

The first two and a half manuscripts were about an interior decorator who finds dead bodies while on the job. At the time I wrote them, I was teaching interior decorating classes at the community college, so my thoughts naturally gravitated in that direction.

 

For the Murder with a Touch of Spice novel, however, I happened to run across an obituary in the newspaper about the surviving members of the deceased. Three of their names were spices. I had one of those “Aha” moments and couldn’t get to my writing tablet fast enough to write down the plot. And, since I’ve been blessed (or cursed) with a twisted sense of humor, I added a few extra spice characters and couldn’t resist topping it all off with the name “McCormick”. 

 

One of my favorite authors is Janet Evanovich, who writes the Stephanie Plum adventure/mystery series that are filled with non-stop action. Armed with my crazy spice theme, I planned to turn my manuscript into a writing exercise to see how many outrageous action scenes I could squeeze into one book. I never thought it would see the light of day. It had already accomplished its purpose of keeping me entertained for many, many hours during the writing process.

 

But it wasn’t over yet! Read the story on my Cancer Journey Blog about how my two writing buddies, Tom Rizzo and Larry Watts, inspired me to pull that manuscript out of my bottom desk drawer, where it had languished for seven years, and get it published.

 

Inspiration is everywhere!